January 2014

Noam: What a plant knows.

This is an introduction to the increasingly popular and interesting science of plant senses, the book explains how plants react to stimuli and whether they are really "feeling" which is as much a philosophical question as a biological one. They tried to call this field plant neurobiology, but as plants lack an organized Neurological system, the real neurobiologist got upset. A remarkable introduction and so much of this has been found out in the past 20 years. If you want more of this you need to get into some real cutting edge science, but I was stunned to find out that there are 16 different photoreceptors in Arabadopsis, and that plants do have memory. In addition the BRAC gene found in breast cancer is also present in plants and a mutation in the gene that in humans causes deafness but stopping teh growth of sensory hairs in the ear canal, in plants stops root hair growth

Yonatan:  Dark Star Alan Furst

I know you loved the first one in the series. You know I love reading books in a series so here is number 2. Let me know how long we should go between installments.

December 2013

Yoni and Noam,

My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel 

by Avi Shavit.

Forgive me for sending you both the same book but I just finished it and I could not put it down. It has had incredible reviews, and it is a remarkable view of a remarkable country.
This is Israel, written by a liberal Israeli who has access to both the rich and famous and the poor and dispossessed. It is a nuanced story, way beyond the crap put out by the Jewish establishment and the crap put out by the Arab fellow-travellers.
This includes both the critical history and the author's view of the future. This is subtle, sometimes contradictory but wonderful complex stuff and yet very readable.
By the time you finish this book you will have a much greater understanding of the situation in  Israel than you could get from anywhere else.

November 2013

It is Two for one Month (books with appeal to boys and girls)

For Yoni, The Goldfinch: Donna Tart. I have yet to read this..But, I am listening to the serialization on the BBC, I will read it, honest.
Anyway it is an exciting fast paced but literary novel and I think it will appeal to both of you, so it is a toofer.

Noam:
 The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans : Lawrence N Powell. No, of course I haven't read it but it has very high reviews and is an accesible , yet scholarly work on the founding and growth of your new home town.

October 2013

Yoni: Alan Furst: Night Soldiers.
This guy is very popular now, and rightly so. I just finished a book of his set in Paris immediately prior to the second world war. This is the first in the series. Set mostly in Paris and roaming through Middle Europe. People work for both sides, they try and do the right thing which may mean they end up working with the bad guys every now and then, I think that you really will enjoy this.
p.s. I also sent you the new Jhumpa Lahiri book, that is for Daci.


Noam: Jarrod Diamond: Guns Germs and Steel. I have read this and you will enjoy this very much. How geography and inventions and of course microbiology have changed the course of human events. That's not to say that great leaders have no role but apparently geography and a number of critical quantum leaps in technology perform the real historical movements.

September 2013

Yonatan: Alexander Fleming, The man and the myth.
Yoni, first an apology. I had to buy this second hand from the UK it might take a week to arrive.
This will make you the king of ID for a while. This well thought out book describes the "accident" that led to the discovery of penicillin and takes an approach which proves that it cannot of been an accident but a well thought out set of experiments. It goes on to describe the great showman that Fleming was taking the Nobel prize and all...

Noam: Shaman: At his request

http://www.npr.org/2013/08/28/214525930/shaman-takes-readers-back-to-the-dawn-of-humankind

August 2013

Two science books this month, fiction for Yonatan, History for Noam

Yonatan: Berlin Wild. I read this about 15 years ago. I see now that it is out of print so I have sent you a "very good" second-hand copy.
There can't be many novels connecting scientific research and the Holocaust but there is at least one.
Boy survives in Berlin, through his association with a research lab. A little far fetched perhaps?
I loved this, I was amazed to see it out of print.

Noam: Deadly Companions: How Microbes Shaped Our History.
It is hard to find you a book on the history of Microbiology that I have read. Most of those are either too technical or so out of date as to be useless. This seems a lot better though. There are a number of books explaining the historical effect of microbiology (think the black death, and Jared Diamonds Guns, germs and History) It is from 2007 and does go into SARS etc. I think that you will find it just technical enough and not written for idiots but easy enough to read so that it is not written for academics.

July 2013 (a bit late)

July 2013:
Yoni Sacred Games by Vikram Choudry
I was amazed when I first read this exciting Indian detective novel. It presents a side of India which is rarely discussed and only now is being written about. This book was an opening to his work and since this novel I have read everything he has written and much modern Indian fiction besides. It is a longish novel, but can be read quite quickly. I hope you will enjoy this as much as I did. If you enjoy this then it's fast forward to "a suitable boy" by Vikram Seth the longest novel written in English!

Noam: A walk in the woods Bill Bryson. this is of course, a result of our recent visit to the Smokies. In his usual style Bryson begins with the optimistic aim of walking the whole AT. He tells the story in a way which could be likened to listening to Ian and me chatting about something we did when we were younger, but done brilliantly by Bryson. I know you will love it.